The man shot dead near the corner of Willow and Leonidas streets Friday night has been identified by neighbors and family members as Clardie Lee Ellis III, 28, who had just begun taking summer classes at Southern University at New Orleans.

Although officials have yet to name the man, who was shot dead in front of a family home on Willow Street, his identity was confirmed at the scene by Ellis' mother, Djuana Fields, and neighbor Peter Skinner, who lives two blocks away from the site of the shooting.

Neighbors reported hearing two shots fired just before 10 p.m. Friday. New Orleans police arrived shortly thereafter and Ellis was pronounced dead at the scene.

Fields and Skinner said they believe the murder was more likely the result of a personal dispute than of criminal activity. Police responded last week to an incident in which the windshield of Ellis' car was "bashed in," they said.

"This is not a drug-related crime," said Skinner, who described himself as an acquaintance of the Ellis family and Clardie Ellis' father, Clardie Lee Ellis, Jr., who died in November.